


Run Girl, run

by SpikeyGirl



Series: Grey, Earl Grey [3]
Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz, CHERUB - Robert Muchamore, James Bond (Craig movies), Kingsman (Movies), RED (Movies), Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Disguise, Everyone suffers because of it, Fugitive, Holly is bad at playing nicely, Holly wants a guide to being a fugative, Holly's world tour, Mycroft is a vindictive bastard, Q (James Bond) is a Holmes, being a little shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24133393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpikeyGirl/pseuds/SpikeyGirl
Summary: So to say that being outed as Supernova sucked was a massive understatement. To have to abandon her home, her friend, and her life, all because Mycroft was a massive prick.At least that was all she had to worry about, being on the run. What else could happen?Lots of things.
Series: Grey, Earl Grey [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/580471
Comments: 9
Kudos: 38





	1. Nazdrave

**Author's Note:**

> I have so much planned.  
> Poor Holly

“Dip your knee more when you turn.” Holly was really wondering why she’d picked skiing as she exaggerated a knee dip as she attempted her next parallel turn. Annoyingly it went better than her previous attempt. “Just like that. Now again.” It was hard to tell if the Bulgarian sounded smug as she repeated, swapping the knee to turn. “Keep going.” Slowly Holly built up her rhythm, feeling a little ridiculous, especially when a swarm of tiny children sped past her, snaking across the slope, and almost making her fall as she panicked about crashing into them. “Don’t worry about them.” That was so much easier said than done. It was funny how quickly she went between wanting to poke them with the poles and worrying about skiing into them.

At the bottom of the slope Holly and her instructor propped up their skis and poles outside what had become their usual restaurant before heading in. Inside were a jumble of tables and chairs packed in, the ones surrounding the blazing fire courted most of the occupants. Holly slide into a table by the window making sure she had a good view out, her instructor sitting opposite.

“That was a good run. I think a red after lunch.” Holly wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, even with the grin on his face.

“I’ll stick with greens.”

“But you’ve already done a blue now.” Holly narrowed her eyes, she knew he’d lied about that slope being green. She’d studied the resort map extensively, but had trusted the local knowledge. “See it wasn’t so bad.”  
“I feel like we saw that slope differently.” She had ended up speeding down most of the slope when someone had cut up one of her hesitant turns. While that had been both fun and scary, that particular slope split at the bottom, half of it seemed to drop away while the other curved to the right.

“You just need confidence.” That was something Holly never thought someone would ever need to say to her.

\----

It had been a month since Christmas Eve, the day her life as she knew it had ended, shattering around her with one half muttered word in front of the wrong person. She’d been looking over her shoulder since.

Getting out of England had been interesting. Luckily a lot of people travelled around Christmas and New Year’s so she could stick with big crowds at the port. She’d booked a lot of different trips out of the country, at least one for each person who she’d gotten a fake passport off, and waited to see what flagged. Mary had provided the best, Victoria’s hadn’t flagged, but looked too similar to her. Alex’s had flagged which made Holly more than a little sad.

Norway had been her first stop, trying to be a little unpredictable and unsuspicious at the same time. From there she’d dropped down to the Netherlands and from there she could roam the Schengen zone without too much issue. The ski resort idea had come to her as she’d slowly gone through Germany, all bundled up you couldn’t see any personal identifiable features, relying on the combination of outerwear to be consistent. She’d considered the Alps, but she was on limited money until she could knew it wouldn’t be traced back to her. She’d settled on Bulgaria, and for the last two weeks she’d been learning to ski, keeping her occupied and forcing her to focus on something other than her old life.

Another week or so and she would move on. Maybe it had already been too long, but no one suspicious had come in with the new batch of holidaymakers. Holly had hijacked all the resort’s hotel lobby CCTV and run it through facial recognition every weekend when the holiday package cycle started again.

After the first week Holly had wondered if they were actually looking for her, if maybe she’d just assumed she was more important than she actually was. She hadn’t seen anyone following her or giving her even a second glance. Then she’d seen her face on Interpol’s most wanted when she got a little too curious. What had hurt was the treason charge she was being hunted for, the actual act of treason being listed as classified. Holly tried digging, but without some of her heavy-duty programs that would identify her she wasn’t getting anywhere.

\----

Another few weeks and many more runs down the mountain and Holly called time. With the light fading and her muscles aching she made the decision to move on from Borovets. She stowed her equipment in the stores, sighing in relief as she pulled off the ski boots for the last time. One of the employees always laughed at her exaggerated joy at freeing her feet and was always there to laugh again when she turned up at the crack of dawn to put them back on.

Safely in her room, door locked, Holly shed her outer layers, throwing them on the chair before starting on the rest of the layers leaving a trail to the bathroom. The shower’s hot spray slowly melted the aches away as Holly massaged shampoo into her hair. She’d finally gotten used to the new colour, a hipster rose gold colour, given a gentle wave as she French plaited the towel-dried hair.

Immediately upon opening the bathroom door Holly knew something was wrong. To her left, facing her, was a mirror and in that mirror she could see a boot sticking out from the armchair that wasn’t quite visible. Immediately Holly could feel her heart starting to race, she reached back into the bathroom, rolling her eyes as the first thing she grabbed was her toothbrush. It would have to do. She hid it up the sleeve of her robe and wandered into the main living area, ignoring the chair and its occupant, flipping on the TV and perching on the end of the nearest bed. Before the screen burst into colour she could see the reflection of the man moving to get up from the chair.

Holly took some controlled breaths, waiting for him to get close enough. A hand planted on her shoulder and she dipped it, spinning out to face the man then under his outstretched arm. His hand was still tangled with the twisted robe, pulling it backwards in a sort of lock as Holly snaked an arm around his neck, the non-bristled end of the toothbrush digging into his throat.

The man started laughing.

“Alex always had an interesting choice in friends.” The man commented in Russian. Alex wasn’t a friend, his passport had pinged.

“Are you one of them?” Holly responded in the same language, pressing the toothbrush harder.

“I don’t have the luxury of friends.”

“I can believe that.” Holly pulled back, pushing the man forward and hopefully off balance as she grabbed the pillow from the bed, throwing it at him, growling when her gun wasn’t under the pillow.

“Rookie mistake.” Holly slowly turned the face the man, her own gun being pointed in her face. “I am not here to kill you.” It reminded her of when Alec had appeared in her life. She was being played with.

“Then put down the gun.”

“Put down the toothbrush first.” The man was clearly amused by her improvised weapon. Holly signed as she placed it on the floor.” The man grinned even more. “Kick it over.” Holly gave her best ‘Are you kidding me look’ before kicking it. The man placed the gun on the side before picking up the toothbrush and inspecting it.

“It’s just a toothbrush.” This time. Holly learnt from her mistakes, most of the time.

“It never hurts to be too cautious. You should learn that if you’re going to survive.”

“Who are you?” Other than another cryptic Russian.

“You can call me Yassen. Alex asked me to help you. MI6 are close.”

“Alex works for MI6, why would he ask you to help me?”

“I didn’t ask. Get dressed and pack light, meet me by the equipment store entrance.”

\----

Holly left through the car park entrance. The second the door shut behind her she knew she’d been predicted. Yassen stepped out from behind a car. “Get in.” Yassen had made the slight switch to Bulgarian, easily passing it as a native accent. Holly rolled her eyes and held a hand out for the keys. The look she got wasn’t as humoured as back in the room. She slid into the passenger seat, her backpack on her lap.

“What’s that?” Yassen poked at her stomach once they were on the road, hitting a hard case.

“Nothing to concern yourself with.” The Nintendo Switch Holly had intended to give Zephyr was slung across her stomach in its armoured case. It had been too dangerous to leave behind, but Holly couldn’t bring herself to destroy it.

“It sticks out too much, find a better way to hide it next time.” Holly had thought the ski jacket managed it. She’d slim down the case when she found time.

“Yes mother.” The car screeched to a halt. Yassen didn’t look happy, maybe she’d offended him.

“Consider yourself helped. Get out.” Yep, offended. Common sense told her to apologise. Pride told her she could handle herself. She fished a few notes of Lev out of her pocket and dropped them on the seat behind her.

“Call it a cab fare.” She slammed the car door and watched the red lights disappear down the road. She got off the road and at least a bit into the woods before she started her hike back to the resort.

The main street was still busy with people exploring the nightlife, but as she got closer to the top of the hill where her hotel was, she noticed some odd cars, she couldn’t put her finger on why they stuck out, but they did. She went straight for the car park and checked her hire car, the keys hidden under a windowsill just opposite. There were no new smudges on the bonnet or near wheel arches, and a cursory glance around the trim showed it looked undisturbed. She dumped her bag in the passenger seat and got in. She didn’t know where to go, but it would hopefully confuse anyone who tried to tail her.

\----

A week later she was sipping a latte in a warm café in Paris. There were probably enough other ingredients in the drink that it could no longer be classed as coffee, but she couldn’t drink coffee, not even for cover. She’d spent a week mostly inside watching makeup tutorials that actually changed how the face looked. Hopefully enough to fool facial recognition. Today was a trial run. Her bag was under her chair in case she needed to make a run for it. She typed away on her laptop, a single earbud in but nothing playing, pretending she was back at university to get the vibe, only glancing up when approached.

“Can we share your table?” It took a moment for her laptop to pop up with a translation. For some reason Holly had never really managed French, too distracted by how it sounded. The café was suitably packed and a slightly larger one had freed up when she had turned up. She had felt guilty taking up a bigger table, but none of the smaller ones had freed up since.

“Yes.” There was no way they wouldn’t figure out she wasn’t a native speaker so Holly had tried to give it a Russian accent, even then it sounded painfully unnatural as it came out.

“Thank you.” That one she didn’t need a translation, she shuffled her stuff around to give the pair space on half the table a little curious when they both brought out sketch pads, carefully positioned away from their drinks. Her translation software struggled to keep up with the rapid-fire French that came from them. Holly kept an eye out for anything that might indicate trouble for her.

It seemed inevitable in hindsight, between the sketchpads and pencils waving around, one of the drinks toppled spilling out the warm brown liquid. Holly instantly picked up her laptop, closing the lid, cringing a little as the liquid dripped into her lap. Laptop still in one hand Holly grabbed some napkins from the table next to her as the pair had already got the supply on their table trying to contain the mess. With the laptop closed Holly couldn’t understand their words, though she was fairly certain there was an apology in there.

One of them left with the soaked napkins, the other rambling in French still, he must have seen her perplexed face and asked a question which may have been “Do you speak French?” but without the software she couldn’t be certain. “Do you speak English?”

“Yes.” Still pulling on a Russian accent Holly was glad they could communicate in a language she could understand without help.

“I apologise for the mess we created, I hope we did not cause too much trouble and that your computer is unharmed.”

“It’s fine, no harm done.”

“I am Lucas, and my friend is Theo.” Theo was just heading back to the table with a new drink in hand.

“My name is Sofia. It is nice to meet you both.”


	2. à votre santé

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly starts learning some lessons about being on the run.

Having never really been out of England for more than a few weeks at a time Holly had never really experienced a country with weather that wasn’t just a dice roll where five of the six faces were rain. Even though it wasn’t warm, it was still tolerable to be outside, no semi-permanent drizzle throughout the last week of February. Holly sat with Lucas and Theo outside their cafe as they ‘People watched’ and complained about how winter was so boring.

In the week or so they had been hanging out Holly had learnt that the pair were aspiring fashion designers, angling for more function over faff, something Holly could appreciate. Their watching was to try to get inspiration for something unusual without being silly. Holly had tagged along to give them an outsiders perspective, and also to see if anyone suspicious walked past, not that she told them that.

As much as she liked the pair, she yearned for her old friends. She regretted every moment she hadn’t spent with them, even when they started to spread back out. Poor James had had to start making friends in his own classes, though he seemed to do that with practised ease. She hadn’t dared look them up since being on the run, they were known as her friends, and as such they would likely be monitored by Mycroft’s people. The least she could do was leave them alone and hope their lives weren’t being intruded on too much.

It also reminded her she shouldn’t be getting too close to Lucas and Theo, but she was terrible at following her own advice. So she stayed, as long as there was no sign of trouble, she even started to pick up odd jobs, acquiring a new online handle to test the waters.

“Why do you dress like that?” Holly didn’t realise Lucas was watching her instead of the pedestrians.

“Like what?” Holly wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be offended by the question.

“Like you. What gave you your style?”

“It’s comfortable.” And easy to run in, nothing loose to snag, nothing heavy. Not form-fitting enough to show what she was hiding under the layers, but not enough to look suspicious.

“You aren’t even wearing an outer layer.” Apparently a hoodie wasn’t an outer layer. Though looking around, everyone else seemed to have on overcoats. Maybe she was a bit odd, she should probably get one so she didn’t stick out.

“Why would I? It’s not snowing.” Holly joked, playing up the Russian accent almost as a reminder. Lucas laughed, shifting closer to her.

“I will have to borrow some of your extra heat then.”

\----

“So it’s just the two of us, Theo’s boyfriend is in town and wanted to take him out for lunch.” Lucas didn’t look too upset when he slid into the seat opposite Holly at the café. “I was thinking we could go to the Eiffel tower? You mentioned you had never been and Theo does not like heights so it does not matter he is not with us.” He was basically buzzing in his chair with excitement.

“Sure.”

There were probably better days to go without the grey clouds and brisk wind. Lucas didn’t seem put off and Holly was actually reminded a little of home.

“You look cold. Here, take my scarf.” Holly couldn’t even decline before Lucas had taken his scarf off and was wrapping it around her neck.

“But then you will be cold.”

“I will simply have to stand closer to you so we can share heat then.”

It still took another incident like that for Holly to realise he was flirting with her.

\----

It was 8 am a week later when Holly got the text saying they were all going to the Louvre and to meet at the Carrousel entrance in an hour. Looking out the window Holly realised she’d been working all night again when the sky was starting to get light again. She considered blowing it off, but she kind of liked art, and spending time with Lucas was nice. She wanted to make the most of it before she had to move on again. It put her in two minds, she liked Lucas, but she possibly still had Zephyr back home. There wasn’t a guidebook for if you still have a relationship when you’ve be accused of treason by your boyfriend’s brother.

  
It didn’t take long for the decision to be taken out of her hands. Holly hadn’t realised they’d need to get through security to get into the Louvre. Holly wasn’t wearing a long sleeve tee shirt, her tattoo concealer was patchy at best from yesterday morning and as they approached the security checkpoint she was getting a little nervous. Lucas was there beside her ready to help if there was a language barrier, a reassuring hand keeping her from getting separated.

Theo and his boyfriend Kyle were just closing their bags up when Holly’s bag strap caught on her hoodie’s sleeve, dragging it halfway up her arm before she flailed, hastily pulling the sleeve back down, and wincing as her bag hit the floor, not quite having hooked onto her shoulder. She refused to look around to see if anyone had seen her little panic, she didn’t want to give them a clear view of her face too. She carefully pulled her backpack on, making sure it wouldn’t catch this time, muttering in Russian about stupid bags.

Once safely passed security, just a few odd looks following them, Lucas tugged on Holly’s sleeve.

“Is that a tattoo?” Holly nodded, pulling the sleeve out of his grasp. He seemed a little put out, but covered it by hooking his arm through hers. “So are you a painting person or a sculpture person?” Suddenly Holly remembered she hadn’t been in a gallery sober for a while and wasn’t sure if she could do this as a normal cultured person.

\----

“Nice tattoo, Holly.” Theo and Lucas were waiting in line to get lunch for the four of them and Holly was kind of glad for it when Kyle made his loaded comment using her real name. She didn’t know how much he knew, but he had recognised the tattoo and IDed her off it. But he wasn’t overtly calling for back up, though maybe he was wired up. Holly really had to resist the temptation to just leg it.

“Who do you work for?” Holly kept up the Russian accent, just in case. She tried to keep it casual, but it was hard when she knew that to get out, she’d have to get passed security again.

“I don’t work for any agency if that’s what you think.” Holly gave him a proper once over, he didn’t have typical agent vibe, more of a relaxed one, but was clearly trained. He looked around her age though, too young to be trained and have quit. He reminded her of one person she knew so she took a stab in the dark.

“Cherub.” The reaction confirmed it as he stiffened in his seat. “I didn’t betray my country.” Holly briefly switched back to her natural accent. Kyle nodded grimly, Holly wondered exactly what he had been told. “What about them?” She nodded to where the French pair were getting close to the front of the line.

“They’re clean, just normal people.”

“I miss being normal.”

“According to my friend, you never managed to be normal. Apparently you got up to a lot of hijinks at university.” He had to be James’s friend, unless there was another Cherub floating around her friendship group, other than Lauren. “After the official briefing on the ‘new risk’ we went out for a beer and he told me how it didn’t make sense. He swore it had to be a cover-up for something. He would know, he went through something back in the day.” It gave Holly a warm feeling to know that James believed in her, or at least doubted the treason.

“So what are you going to do now?”

“I won’t give you away. If it wasn’t for the tattoo I wouldn’t have recognised you so you should be safe for a while longer. Last I heard, you had been spotted in Bulgaria and they thought you would stay around that side of Europe.” Exactly how Holly had hoped they would think.

“I appreciate your discretion, but I think I need to move on anyway, I’ve been here too long. Lucas and Theo weren’t to know, so hopefully they'll be let off lightly. You, however, need to call your people and tell them you saw me.”

“Can it wait until after we finish the museum? I don’t know how quickly they can respond over here and I don’t fancy a panicked crowd if they aren’t delicate about it.” Kyle made a fair point, Holly didn’t fancy seeing the business end of the armed security. She also didn’t trust the British government to be delicate about anything to do with her. Mycroft was one to hold a grudge for a very long time.

“Ok, just do me a favour and look out for those two at least until it dies down again. I don’t know what the fallout is like back in England but they were all used to my bullshit, they aren’t.” Holly indicated to where Lucas and Theo were heading back to the table, indicating they should wrap up their conversation.

“Sure.”

\----

“It’s almost a shame armour is so impractical these days,” Lucas commented as they looked at a painting of Jeanne d’Arc.

“Only if they don’t cinch the waist like that, that looks painful. I would love a suit of armour if it could blend in. I do like the split skirt thing over it.”

“You do not seem like a metal suit of armour person, I feel chainmail would be your thing. A suit of armour is loud, you, not so much.”

“That does sound better, I could probably manage some under my hoodie, probably not so much if I were dressing up. Did they have formal chainmail?” Holly joked, after a few seconds of silence she turned from the painting to see Lucas eyeing her up. For a brief moment, Holly wondered if somehow he had found out, but rationality stomped that thought out pretty quickly. She watched in confusion as he pulled out his phone, swiftly typing before just as quickly putting it back.

Not even a minute later Theo turned up with Kyle following looking about as confused as Holly. The confusion only grew when they started speaking in rapid French. There was some gesturing to the painting and Holly, both of them getting more excited.

“Any clue?” Holly asked Kyle, hoping maybe he knew some French.

“Too fast for me, I didn’t manage to get even close to fluent.”

“Think we should be concerned?”

“Only if they get us kicked out.”

“Apologies, I had an inspiration.” Lucas finally returned to English, still looking like he’d downed a four-pack of red bull.

“Share with the class?”

“Not yet, soon I promise.” There wouldn’t be a soon, Holly commiserated as they continued around the museum. Lucas and Theo often dipped out to quickly look at something and it was making her a little antsy when she’d turn to find someone missing, her instinct to protect her friends kicking in.

\----

Eventually, they called it a day as closing time approached, Holly was struggling to stay focused as the complete lack of sleep was catching up with her. Lucas tried to insist on getting her a taxi, but Holly still didn’t trust them, choosing to walk, which turned into all of them coming with her. Thankfully Kyle and Theo waited outside the block of flats.

“I need to leave, tomorrow,” Holly admitted as they stopped outside her door. It would have been easier to just leave, probably better too, but Holly fell she owed Lucas this.

“Are you running from someone?” Holly didn’t hide her surprise well enough. “The way you hid your arm. You did not want anyone to see it.” Well, that saved having to make up some bullshit story.

“I’m sorry.”

“I am as well. I will miss you.” Holly grabbed him for a hug, trying not to cry. She felt him wrap his arms around her, gently rubbing her back. He kissed the top of her head and with it, a tear escaped her eye.

“Be careful, people will come looking for me.” She warned as she pulled back, quickly wiping at her eyes. Lucas nodded, waiting for her to get safely into her flat before leaving. Holly leant against the back of the door still trying to control herself. She needed to learn not to get attached and from the looks of it, it was going to be a long and painful lesson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's surprisingly hard to research travel links during a virus outbreak.  
> 'How do you get from point A to point B?'   
> 'Can't. Travel restrictions due to Covid-19'  
> 'Yeah, but what if there weren't?'


	3. Salud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly is forced to acknowledge that not everyone is on her side, and the ones who aren't hurt the most.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently Amazon have done an Alex Rider series? It doesn't look as bad as the Artemis Fowl film does on Disney plus.   
> I'll probably still end up watching both, but none of my childhood favourite books have had adaptations that do them justice so I'm not too hopeful.

Malaga was Holly’s next attempt at hiding out in Europe, reaching the southern coast of Spain and doing her very best to tan in the winter sun. Luckily Spain was a tourist hotspot for Brits all year round and most of the locals spoke English, it was better to blend in with her natural accent than faking one. Holly figured as long as she avoided being in the background of too many photos, aided by a floppy hat, large sunglasses and floaty scarf, she could hang out for at least a week or two. Not long enough to make friends this time.

With cheap drinks fulling her, Holly managed to get through quite a few days without dwelling on the past, throwing herself into her latest project. One that would make her life on the run so much easier, an added incentive.

It was all going so well until Alex stepped into the shop she was picking up food in. She ducked down an aisle, angling the floppy hat to cover her face from the side. She’d wait for him to get deeper, in and then ditch the basket and leave. Hopefully there wasn’t too much back up and she’d be able to lose them in the tourists.

Her basket suddenly got heavier, looking down there was now a third bottle of vodka in it.

“Excuse me?” Holly had picked up a few phrases in Spanish, that one was quite common.

“We have a situation.” Alex didn’t bother with Spanish. Holly mentally tossed a coin over whether to keep up the charade. She sighed as her curiosity won, again.

“You have a situation. I’m currently on the run, remember?” Despite his passport pinging for her, Holly had to balance that with him using Yassen to warn her, and the fact he hadn’t just waited and ambushed her at her place. For now she’d roll with it and run if needed.

“The two elder Holmes’s brothers have gone missing.”

“That’s fantastic news.” Alex’s face really didn’t agree with her sentiments, but he wasn’t the one with a treason accusation against him. He took the basket from her took it to the checkout. Holly really tried not to follow, she could just pick up a new basket and start again, or just go to a different shop. But she was curious and one day it would likely get her killed. Hopefully that day wouldn’t be today. At least he was generous enough to pay for her stuff and even carry it. Though Holly suspected it was to keep her following back to her own place.

“There are protocols in place for events like this. The remaining Holmes brother gets taken to an off the grid safe place. I was the closest agent, so I made the call.” And just like that Holly had a sinking feeling. “Mycroft disappeared from St Thomas’s hospital, Sherlock could have been anywhere but rarely leaves the country. It’s clear England was not safe.” Super sinking feeling.

“He’s at my villa isn’t he?” It wasn’t even really a question. ”Are you actually insane?” She wasn’t stupid enough to have left anything unsecured, thankfully, but considering her current circumstances Holly wondered if all MI6 agents were a little brain damaged. “Does he know it’s my place? How long until I have more agents crawling over my stuff?” Holly’s hand hovered over her pocket, ready to brick what little equipment she had. None of her proximity sensors had warned her either, slightly concerning, but something to bring up later.

“I thought of that, don’t worry.” This should be good. “He’s handcuffed in your bathroom. I couldn’t find anything electronic in there.”

“Last question. I’m assuming you figured out I didn’t betray my country. Why did the passport you gave me ping?”

“I knew you had others, it solidified my position against you so I wouldn’t be scrutinised.” It was good to know she had another ally. “I should warn you, I don’t think our friend has the same view.” Holly guessed it was protocol to not mention his name in case they were being listened to. “I think he’s been manipulated, more than they tried with the rest of us. I warned your uni friends not to resist too much and go with it, they can think what they like, but until this goes away they need to keep their heads down. Your grandmother told the agents to fuck off. It was hilarious. But he’s been in a lot of meetings since you fled and even more after it came out that you’re SuperNova. If they want to cut off your support he would be your biggest loss and they know it.” Alex sounded grave as he danced around his point.

“So to summarise, if he hates me, don’t be surprised.” Alex nodded sheepishly, Holly would be lying if she hadn’t wondered how Mycroft would deal with his brother. She felt a pang of guilt stirring up in her gut. “Thanks for looking out for the others.”

“I will need another favour.”

\----

Holly could feel her heart thumping in her chest as they approached the villa, Alex unlocked the door and nudged her in. Discretely hidden under her floaty scarf, her hands were cuffed in front of her. She grumbled as she was escorted to her own living room and pushed down onto the sofa.

“Don’t touch anything.” It was grating but Alex needed to keep his cover. He returned with Zephyr in tow. Holly only had seconds to throw herself across the sofa, the thrown knife only just missing her. She had actually forgotten about that. After Yassen she’d started keeping a knife next to her toothbrush. She twisted to look at the pair, Alex was holding back Zephyr who looked betrayed and angry, she had expected it but it hurt to see all the same.

“That was my bad.” Holly admitted, propping herself back up into a sitting position, she twisted to carefully pull the knife out of the sofa, really hoping it wouldn’t be too noticeable. When she turned back around Alex had a gun pointed at her.

“Put the knife down.”

“Sorry, I’m still new to all of this.” She placed it carefully on the coffee table. Alex came forward to retrieve it, unfortunately he underestimated Zephyr's apparent desire to get to Holly as he slipped passed and lunged for her. Holly half rolled over the arm of the sofa, gaining a bit of distance.

“Stand down, we need her help.”

“We don’t. Just get me a laptop.” She could see him eyeing up hers on the dining room table behind her. It would probably take him longer to break into it than to find his brothers.

“I have my orders.” Holly had to wonder why their main protocol to protect Zephyr was to isolate him off the grid and off the internet, it seemed a little silly when he was one of their best assets behind a computer. If he’d done what she had, a second online persona, with a different enough style then they would at least be able to let him help instead of wrapping him in bubble wrap.

“We are not asking for a traitor's help.” It was hard not to take this personally, but when she looked at Zephyr it wasn’t the man she loved there. She had hoped that he was doing like the others, doing it to keep himself in the game but she could see Mycroft had gotten to him and turned him.

“Sweet, get out of my house.” She would have to move fast to get out before backup turned up.

“Both of you two shut up. They still haven’t found your brothers and your department aren’t exactly a bunch of idiots, if they were going to then they would have by now.”

“Then why are we asking her?”

“Because I’m better than you.” Holly was ready for him this time, with her hands cuffed the throw wasn’t as controlled but it had the desired effect. She was comfortably sat on his back holding one of his arms behind him.

“Holly.” Turning to Alex, Holly found the gun in her face again. Reluctantly Holly released Zephyr and stood, as she moved to step off him her ankle was pulled, the other grabbed so she couldn’t use it to stabilise. Holly fell hard, her right elbow catching the worst of it as she tried to put out her hands but couldn’t move them enough to land first. Pain exploded down her arm as she rolled off it into a sitting position, the skin turning red rapidly. With a hand still cuffed it was difficult to cradle her elbow

“You can both leave now.” Her voice had gone empty, her goodwill to helping Alex gone.

“If we leave without your help then this place will be crawling with agents within the hour.”

“I’ll take that over helping a Holmes.” Alex grabbed Zephyr and pulled him over to the door and cuffing him to the knob.

“What about now?”

“Why would that change anything?”

“I’ll give you two hours head start.”

“You are not authorised to do that agent.” Alex seemed exasperated as turned his back to Holly and whispered something to Zephyr who actually looked a little cowed by the time Alex finished.

“Doesn’t matter, I’d rather his brothers stay missing so he can enjoy exile too.”

“John Watson is also missing.” Alex had missed that detail. Holly owed John her life.

With a little difficulty, and a lot of pain, she got up from the floor and kicked out a chair from the table so she could sit. She opened her laptop and logged in under her ‘safe’ mode. It was a bit more awkward to get her phone out but she managed it and called John's phone. Predictably it rang out but Holly had sent it a gift so when she called it a second time it picked up after the first ring. A connection she could trace.

What she wasn’t expecting was someone to talk to her.

“You must be the infamous Miss Summers.” A female voice filtered through, Holly quickly put it on speaker so she wouldn’t have to hold it up as it would take her hands away from the keyboard. Looking at the guys they looked just as confused as she was.

“With whom do I have the honour of speaking?”

“If my dear brother gets his way I presume your future cellmate.” That was an awful lot to unpack. Not helped when the ping came back as a tiny island off Scotland. She beckoned Alex over so he could pass on the information. Behind him Zephyr was still processing the information.

“Another Holmes, just what I need. May I presume you have John, Sherlock and Mycroft in your care?”

“You may.” The woman sounded amused.

“Will you be releasing them?”

“If they behave then maybe.”

“Good enough for me. Don’t hurt John, Mycroft can burn in hell.”

“Enjoy Spain Zephyr. I’ll see you soon.” Holly almost knocked over her laptop when she hastily ended the call, her job was done but not only was her location busted, but so was Zephyr’s. “Leave the villa keys on the kitchen counter.” She told Alex who was unlocking the handcuffs on his quartermaster. He recognised the threat. They all needed to get out of there. Holly pulled her bag from behind the sofa, fumbling a bit as twinges of pain distracted her. She made short work of the handcuffs with hairpins in a side pocket, grateful Alex had used normal ones.

“We need to bring her in.” Zephyr wasn’t giving up, trying to pull away from Alex. Holly sorely wanted to know what they had said to him. Where to start with undoing the damage.

“You need to worry about yourself. I’m not your biggest problem right now.” Laptop shoved in her bag, phone ready to be dumped Holly was ready to go. “Keep him safe.”  
Holly was a few steps down the road when she felt Alex fall into step next to her. A quick glance showed he was holding Zephyr to his other side. “This is not how I intended for you to keep him safe.”

“I was hoping for a little help getting him off the grid.”

“Don’t you have contacts for this?”

“Yes. You are one of them.” Holly lent forward a bit to see Zephyr looked really put out by the situation.

“Fine, but he can’t look.” Holly let them be a few steps ahead as she pulled out the Switch, watching it boot in seconds thanks to her upgrades, and started browsing her apps. A little drawing in one of those and every accessible camera in a five-mile radius started to loop. She drew a little more, following transport lines, buses, trains and major roads until their next big city. The cameras in those lines also went down. For fun, she drew a dick over England, no one would see it but she would know.

“You’re clear on cameras for the next four hours if you take public transport, I’ve taken them down from here to the next cities over so pick and hope for the best,” Holly informed them as the Switch was stashed away.

“Which one are you going to?” Alex asked dropping back with Zephyr so they were once again in line. “Just so we don’t pick the same one.”

“Yea-no.”

“I tried.” Alex turned to Zephyr with a shrug. Holly was fairly certain she could hear him muttering about desk duty but couldn’t quite make it out.

\----

This being the third European country Holly had been found in she decided to mix it up. Morocco was only a short hop, though she’d have to avoid Gibraltar. She’d have to keep herself busy on the boat or she’d end up in her own thoughts and she could tell that was a dangerous place right now. With each person who helped her she’d built up hope that’s what Zephyr was doing, but she was wrong and it hurt as if someone had actually carved the hope out of her chest.  
At the port in Morocco Holly stopped by a public bathroom and rearranged her hair, pulling it in a ponytail before pulling the end forward into a sort of windswept look and pinning it place, sacrificing some of her lock picking hair grips to the cause. With her hood pulled up she could pass as a teenage boy until she figured out her next plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter may come faster, It's already half-written (the one after that is written)


	4. Saha wa a fiab

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly gets called out.

Marrakesh was an interesting place, another tourist loaded one, making it a lot easier to blend in when her language skills failed her. With the streets like an urban jungle maze and Holly still styling as a teenage boy she felt she could get quite a few weeks out of this place. She adored the medina, the old town with its architecture and soul. It was perfect to lose herself in, exploring the nooks and crannies. She couldn’t miss the souks either, they had been overwhelming to begin with, loud and colourful but once she got used to it they welcomed her with their warmth.

To begin with she ended up at the Jardin Mojorelle every few days, wandering through the botanical gardens that surrounded the odd house. There was a lot of art and history she’d explore in the area but she something drew her back the blue house, with her hood obscuring her face as much as possible to hide from tourist photos. The colour of the house was almost garish, offset by the nature around it. It had made her sad to begin with, seeing it was done by a French artist had just brought her thoughts back to Lucas. She wondered what he’d been told, if anything. Maybe they’d turn him against her too, not that it would help, but just to hurt her more, twist the knife a little. Mycroft played dirty while pretending he didn’t, it wasn’t fair but it wasn’t like she could stop it. 

She first marked time with the bruise on her elbow, watching the initial swelling go down and then as it changed colour and the pain slowly faded. She’d been lucky nothing had broken, just the painful swelling. Needing a hospital right now would be a nightmare. Once the bruise wasn’t visible anymore she packed her melancholy away and avoided the Jardin Mojorelle, it represented what she was leaving behind.  
It probably wasn’t wise, but she did check up on John, and by proxy Sherlock. They were spotted near Baker Street which looked like it had seen better days. From the look of it something had exploded in 221B. Holly immediately checked her great aunt was ok, breathing a sigh of relief when she was out and about like usual. It took a lot of restraint not to check up on her friends and family, but she’d risked a lot just checking up on John and Martha.

\----

It wasn’t to last, the peace and quiet.

Even at a distance Holly could see Alec’s leg was definitely broken, before she’d even realised it was him. Holly had been roaming the emptier streets of the edge of the city and managed to stumble on what looked to be a bit of a beat down. Holly had almost stepped on a gun as she turned in her haste to leave. It was the sight of it, the recognition of the model and modifications that made her turn back, and between the men Holly could see the bloodied face of her cousin.

She had seriously the worst luck. Just one city she’d like to herself. Pulling her hood further forward and floaty scarf across her lower face, she picked up the gun by its short barrel and a rock. The gun would be useless to her, as she’d found out last time she’d had Alec’s gun, probably why it had been discarded now. She threw the rock first, hitting one of the men squarely between the shoulders. The man said something she didn’t understand, from the tone it was probably something like “get lost.” Holly squared up with them, channelling her inner teenage punk attitude, keeping her head down and hidden. The first one moved towards her, Holly ducked passed them, and between the next two, pressing the gun against Alec’s chest as she passed. By the time she reached the end of the alley she’d counted three shots. She stopped and looked back, the three men were lying on the ground and Alec was sitting up against a wall cradling his ribs, looking directly at her.  
She should have walked away, if this was a sanctioned mission there would be surveillance, back up, some sort of support. Her feet still brought her back down the alley.

“Can I help?” It wasn’t the most fluent French she’d ever manage but it was passable. Other than the tourists English it was the only language in the city she at least sort of understood. Alec looked at her, she could see he was a little unfocused, if she was lucky he wouldn’t realise it was her. She held out a hand and was a little relieved when he took it. She had to brace herself as he pulled himself up and leant heavily on her to keeping his broken leg from dragging too much. “Where do you want to go?” 

“Not home, no doctors.” Holly could hear the pain in his voice. His French sounded as rusty as hers. Looks like she was compromising her place, again. It wasn’t hugely far, but she was supporting her injured cousin and sticking to the lesser travelled alleys it still was getting late by the time they got close. The worst part was the stairs up to her place. It was little more than a kitchenette with a bed and desk but she didn’t really need more. 

She helped him onto the bed and dug through the cupboards for the first aid kit she’d picked up to use the bandages to hide her tattoo long term. She threw her latest burner phone at him when she came across it figuring he’d need to call in. She could be gone before he finished the call. Finally she found the kit, pulling out the antiseptic wipes first. She had no idea what to do about the broken leg other than not make it worse but she’d do what she could about the rest of his injuries.

Alec was still fiddling with the phone when she finished up. She’d snuck glances, never facing him fully, the hoodie still hopefully hiding her identity.

“I need privacy.” Holly didn’t realise he’d spoken English until he’d pulled down the hood when she got up to leave. “Interesting.” Holly immediately took a few steps out of his reach, trying to remember if she’d seen him put down the gun from earlier. It didn’t materialise so maybe he had? “Q is going to be pissed.” Considering the last time she’d seen him Holly would agree. “Want to piss him off more?” 

“I don’t know if that’s wise.” Holly had been scraping the edge of their radar so far, shimmying out of their reach, she didn’t really fancy having to do another runner so soon. Though with Alec here and difficult to move it seemed like her decision had already been made for her. As long as she could slip out again then maybe?

“It’ll be fun.” Alec made an exceedingly good point.

“Will I end up being arrested?”

“No, I don’t have any back up in the country. And apparently no surveillance as the cameras have been acting up.”

“Maybe you need a better IT guy.” Some of her real time practice runs with her new software had led to some glitches in the local CCTV networks. “Let me get my bag ready to go.” She picked up her bag. “Done.” Before she left the apartment each day she made sure her bag was ready to go just in case.

“Excellent choice.” Alec stopped fiddling with the phone and put in the number holding it in front of him on speaker. “This is Agent 006 reporting in.” There was few noises on the line before the quartermaster picked up. Holly pulled out her Switch and followed the connection into Q branch, she wanted to keep an eye on their rescue so she knew when to leave. 

“Status?”

“Safe but not secure.”

“Can you secure the area?” Alec grinned at Holly and she took the hint.

“No.” The pause that followed was glorious. Holly so dearly wished she could see his face.

“Miss Summers.” It wasn’t a question, she could hear the contempt in his voice. 

Holly had had a lot of time to think in Marrakesh, time to plan, but Zephyr was a complicated problem. It had been easy to figure out just saying she was innocent wouldn’t work. To get him to turn on her they would have to have something ironclad. Without knowing what it was she couldn’t counter it, in fact with Mycroft involved she would probably make it worse. Mycroft was the biggest problem, Holly felt like she wasn’t even playing the same game as him. All of this made it difficult to figure out how to play her turn. 

“You don’t sound happy to hear my voice.” She’d settled on being herself, from before she got too entangled. When all else fails, go back to default and adjust from there. Besides, it was fun to keep them off balanced with her, it gave her an edge, no matter how small.

“What are you doing with my agent?”

“Patching him up?”

“Why? You know we’re tracking this call.” 

“Good, then you can pick him up.” Completely ignoring his actual question. “I’d say you’re welcome but I know you don’t appreciate me.” This was almost fun, better than the alternative. “Your pick up is on its way, about an hour out.” She told Alec, the tirade littered with swearing that came out of the phone in response was impressive. It also had Alec eyeing up her Switch, she’d have to be a bit more careful. 

“Agent, bring her in.”

“I have a broken leg, but I’ll do my best.” Alec hadn’t even tried to sound sincere before he ended the call. “I’m going to be on desk duty for a while anyway. They might even have to unbench 009.”

“Can you guys even be fired?”

“Not really. Besides, most of us have done worse than not turn in a fugitive.” He pulled his gun from where he’d been leaning against it, ejected the clip and chambered bullet, then handed both to Holly. “Might as well make it looked like you considered me a threat.” Holly placed them on the draining board not actually that far out of reach, not many places in the flat were properly out of reach.

“I can stick around for about-” Holly checked the Switch, “Ten minutes before I risk my freedom. Or I can just go now.”

“You’re a fugitive, you should be gone already.”

“I’m still learning.” Alec levelled her with a look she’d last seen on her grandmother.

“You’re still hoping that someone else realises you were framed and has the power to do something about it. You’re lingering, hoping you can get some good news and they’ll let you come back home as if nothing happened.” Holly had never felt so called out in her life. Even Jodie hadn’t managed that and Jodie had called out her bullshit a lot.

“If you can realise I didn’t do it then someone else might.” She tried to defend herself.

“Who do you know who can actually go up against the Holmes’s? You either need better proof than them or to accept you may never get back home.” That was what she’d been hiding from, never really admitting to herself. When Mycroft got Zephyr on his side Holly had already lost, between them they had her cut off from any resources that would uncover her innocence. Maybe she could have gone against one of them, but not both. She was never going home and that made her feel a little sick. Gathering her resolve she hoisted her bag a little higher.

“Thanks I guess.” Leaving an awkward silence behind, Holly left.

Alec was right, she was holding on to her past and to that last sliver of hope. She’d been pretending she was just waiting out a misunderstanding, as if it would be fairly investigated and they would find her innocent. That wasn’t the case and Alec had been the stark reminder. She had to run like she had nothing back home, nothing waiting for her. Later she could slow down, when the heat died down, but not yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter introduces a new crossover I've been excited about for a while.


	5. Saluti

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly meets a new agency and helps save the world.

It started in a hotel bar in Italy.

Holly had wandered the top of Africa over the course of a few months, still disguised as male, it just made it easier, before sneaking back into Europe. There had been no more agents or the like, reassuring to a point, but there was still a thought that reminded her not to get comfortable or complacent. She had somehow managed enough of a tan that she didn’t stand out so much as she drifted around the Mediterranean countries. With the huge backpack she’d picked up she looked like every other gap year student.  
It wasn’t long before she’d gravitated to Naples. On the list of places she wanted to see, it had always been pretty high. Maybe she’d wanted to be there under better circumstances, but the pessimistic side of her had pointed out she may never get the chance again so she now had a list of places to go in Italy while she was there. It was a long list, Holly had a fondness for both ancient Roman history and the Renaissance.

But Naples was first, and it was gorgeous. From her balcony she could see Mount Vesuvius, a splurge, but she didn’t want to half arse her visit. There was still facial recognition watching the hotel lobby and street level surroundings, she even have her new project running, a beta version for the moment, it still needed polishing but it wouldn’t mess up the cameras like it had back in Marrakesh.

Leaning on the balcony, staring at the volcano, Holly couldn’t help but wish she had someone with her to share this. She’d been running for a while and the loneliness was getting to her.  
So she ended up in the hotel bar sipping a cocktail and trying to immerse herself in the busyness to mask the loneliness just for a while.

That’s where she met Roxy. Holly still couldn’t understand why a posh British accent was so attractive to her, it was like Jamie all over again. Roxy looked stunning, a cut above everyone else in the bar area, probably at least two cuts above Holly with her hoodie and well-worn jeans.

It should have been a warning bell. Maybe in the back of her mind it was, she was just drowning that voice with alcohol.

A few drinks after her introduction Roxy had moved closer as they talked about what ever came to mind, she made it easy to talk. Holly had realised that and slowed down her drinking, not wanting to accidently slip. The voice was getting louder.  
Roxy reach out to hold the hand not holding a drink. Her hands were calloused, too calloused for the person she was pretending to be.

Holly invited her up to her room, her turf. As they exited the lift Holly noticed Roxy was leading her to her own room. By the time she got to her door Holly had taken the lead and pushed the other woman up against the door to tease at a kiss while she got the key card in the door to let them in. She distracted Roxy with kisses and touches as she led them through the room. A gentle push had her on the bed, she blindly reached out to the bedside table, the small drawer near the top. Just inside she grasped her knife, pulling it out and to Roxy’s throat.

“Who do you work for?” Holly demanded. She felt a pinch on her neck where one of Roxy’s hands had moved from being tangled in her hair. It took seconds for the fuzziness to become known when she tried to press the knife a little harder. She could vaguely feel herself being rolled onto the bed but then it was all gone.

\----

Something was off when she woke up, she could recognised the signs of being drugged, but nothing felt out of the ordinary. She wasn’t even cuffed. She focused on her senses, she was on something soft but firm, a sofa as she had her back against something, but not a wall. She could hear a loud constant noise, it took a bit longer to identify as it didn’t quite match up with the sofa theory. It sounded like a jet engine, which meant airplane.

She was going to need a little more information. A quick glance around confirmed the airplane theory and nudged it towards private jet considering the space and furniture. The small section was empty of people, a mirror opposite showed a grumpy Holly lying on a green tartan sofa looking back. The door rattled slightly before being opened to admit Alex. Of course it was Alex, and he wanted a favour. She could tell.

“We’re a little short on time so if you could come through.”

“Is there a Holmes on this plane?” It was worth asking, at least to be forewarned.

“No.” Still grumbling under her breath Holly got up and followed him through to the main area. There were three extra people, only one Holly recognised, Roxy from what Holly could only guess was the night before. She looked quite different, not out to seduce someone any more, somehow she looked more attractive with the suit and glasses. There was a lot to take in, the bald man looking over screens with green text, Roxy and the other guy were looking at some equipment.

“Shall we start the briefing? Holly you remember Roxy?” The woman actually looked a little apologetic. “That’s Eggsy and that’s Merlin.” Do Not Ask Questions. That’s how they pull you in. Do not ask if the bald man is really called Merlin. Do not ask what kind of name Eggsy is. “Everyone, this is Holly.” She was going to have so much spam delivered to his house. Not the paper kind, the canned meat kind.

“Have you heard of Richmond Valentine?” The bald man, Merlin addressed her with a Scottish accent.

“The Bill Gates wannabe? I’ve seen his face, he had a new thing coming out soon, I missed the announcement.”

“Free SIM cards, free data with it forever.”

“What’s the catch? Personal info skimming? Using the combined processing power to mine bitcoin? Mind control?” She had thrown the last one in as a joke but the solemn faces were starting to worry her.

“Mind control, sort of. It can emit a tone that makes anyone who can hear it murderously violent.” Ah, not great.

“So what’s the plan? Specifically my part as I presume you all have yours hashed out.”

“I will be trying to gain access to their systems from here, I’m not a field agent.” Don’t ask what agency. “We are predicting I will need someone on the ground to assist. We don’t know if Valentine will have a wireless network or if it will extend to the jet. Our back up plan is a trail of repeaters through and then a broadcast signal from a wired access point. Alex and Eggsy will be in the facility to back you up and stop Valentine.”

“Can’t they plant them?”

“If the repeaters are jammed or taken down then we will need someone on site. Alex tells me you’re the best.”

“Alex needs to keep his mouth shut.”

“Come on, you owe me for Spain.”

“I helped you twice, and almost got stabbed.”

“Fine, Moriarty.” Holly immediately reached for her shoulder as a phantom pain twinged.

“I don’t supposed anyone picked up my Switch.” Roxy held it up. “Where are we going?” Merlin supplied her with the coordinates and ETA. “What’s the Wi-Fi password?” She got incredulous looks from all of them. “It’s polite to ask.”

\----

For a suit, the one she’d been provided with was surprisingly comfortable. It allowed for a wide range of moment without feeling like they were going to split. The glasses were plain and equipped with audio and visual both ways, a vehicle for Merlin to accompany them as far as possible into the mountain. She’d been tempted to interface her Switch with it, but that would potentially allow Merlin access and that wasn’t happening.

The boots were her own, polished up so they looked less like they’d travelled as far as they had. All together she felt like an imposter as Alex and Eggsy emerged suited up. Roxy had what looked like a streamlined space suit on, Holly was still on her don’t ask policy but she got told anyway. Roxy got the joys of low earth orbit to knock a satellite out with a rocket to give them more time.

They dropped Roxy off first, all set up with the fully assembled yellow rocket frame, two silver balloons slowly inflating.

Alex and Holly left the plane as it transitioned from being on external radar to internal cameras. That was not an experience Holly wanted to repeat, it didn’t matter how slow the jet was going, or how low it was. She could hear Merlin apologising to ground control for the miscalculated approach as the pair recovered from their exit. They only had one invite and Eggsy had called dibs, saying it was personal. Trudging the last few kilometres to the hangar Holly was treated to Alex’s fun anecdote about snowboarding down a mountain like the one they were on. Except he had been on an upside down ironing board he’d tied to his feet, and was fleeing armed men on snowmobiles.

Once inside, Holly had her Switch out and was mostly relying on Alex to keep them unseen as they went further in to the access door she’d identified earlier, having manged to obtain the plans, not quite scrubbed from existence. On screen showed the local map with dots overlaid in a few colours. Red dots were unknown radios, assumed to be hostile. Green dots were the glasses, Merlin hadn’t been happy about letting her add that feature but it was a concession he made so they could liaise with Eggsy inside. Purple were the weirdest one, a new addition also with Merlin’s help. They pinged a receiver embedded in the neck of the people Valentine had invited to join and had accepted. If they were purple and red they were probably armed guards, purple on its own meant civilian.

They didn’t know what Valentine himself would show up as, maybe red on its own? If he had a radio. If he stuck to his control room he might use a base station instead of handheld.  
They would deal with that when they got closer, they would probably get a visual on him when they go there.

As they crept down corridors Holly noticed there were quite a few steel doors, curiosity got the better of her as she opened a hatch on one of them.

“Who are you?” A pretty blonde woman demanded in Swedish accented English.

“We’re here to stop Valentine.”

“Good, come back here when you’re done. Oh there are two of you, even better.” Alex had squeezed next to her to look inside. He pulled Holly away and shut the hatch, heading down their planned route, Holly jogged a little to catch up.  
“That’s the princess of Sweden, she went missing weeks ago.” Merlin cracked a bit through the glasses, losing connection even though Holly had only placed a booster at the last junction.

“He has hostages then. I guess any head of state who didn’t agree with him? His plan is so stupid, honestly. The second a toilet breaks in his ‘new world’ they’re fucked.”

“Yeah, well when we step through that doorway you need to pretend it’s the best idea since sliced bread.” He indicated the double doors up ahead that lead to the main room, the control room overlooking it. Holly stashed the Switch in a case was attached to one side of the waistcoat she was wearing, keeping it fixed in place and out of sight as long as she didn’t button the jacket.

They slipped in just after Eggsy walked in the other side, glances going to him instead of them. Alex made headway to the control room, Holly picked a different path, while Eggsy skirted the other side of the room. They’d lost comms with Merlin once the doors had closed, even if there was an access point in here, which there were, a few laptops were plugged in, they would need a door open to give him access.

Alex was by the table closest to their destination when Eggsy was compromised. A man calling out his identity and calling him a Kingsman. Holly caught Alex’s eye and tilted her head to Eggsy, she could handle this.  
She regretted that sentiment as a woman with honest to god blades for legs darted out of the control room, a countdown started on the big screen. 2 minutes. That was not a lot of time.

While chaos erupted in the room Holly could see Valentine watching the woman attack Eggsy who was retreating to the doors. When she got a good swipe with a leg he turned and left the window. Holly wove her way to the door, hand on the gun that hung the opposite side to her Switch.

She burst in expecting more than just Valentine, and honestly she was a little put off by the fact he had sent off his only body guard, unless he was good himself? That was a possibility.

But for now she trained the gun on him, watching him freeze. A hand was hovering over the table, Holly could see a hand shaped light on the smart table. Biometric scanner? It was like this guy wasn’t taking this seriously.  
“Let’s not do anything hasty.” The man spoke with a lisp.

“I never do anything hasty.” Which hand was it? Left hand was hovering over the table, small target at an angle like that. “Please put your hands up.”

“I can give you power.” Valentine offered. It was so casual, like he was offering her a seat on the tube.

“You don’t know what I want. You couldn’t give it if you did. Hands up.” He finally moved his hand and the second she had a clear shot she shifted slightly and fired.

It wasn’t dead centre, it didn’t need to be. That would be enough to stop the scanner recognising his palm print.

Then Valentine puked. Holly could feel her stomach heave at the sight and looked away, trying to not pay attention to the sounds as round two appeared rather rapidly. She looked out the window to check on the agents, both were still fighting the woman, and honestly it looked like she was doing better, all grace and bounce. They needed a window.

So Holly banged on the one in front of her, the woman immediately looked up to it, only to see Holly waving through it. Eggsy managed to nick her with a shoe blade as she turned and she went down within seconds. Holly could only assume poison or something.

A bit of and anticlimactic end to Valentine who was just dry heaving on the floor behind her, though it did sound a little odd. She turned to find him propped up against the table, right hand planted on a new hand print. A back up.  
The timer behind him hit 0.

Then the table started beeping. Holly looked over, quickly scanning over the information presented on it, the satellite link was broken. Roxy had succeeded.

Except the satellites were moving on screen, spacing out to account for the missing one. It would take time. Holly didn’t wait, shooting the hand pressed to the table. That section of the table went dark, spider web cracks spreading from under his hand as Valentine howled in pain, the shock from the first one having worn off.

“It’s not fair.” Valentine eventually sagged back onto the floor in the puddle of vomit and blood, it looked like he was crying too. Holly didn’t dare get closer to check.

“Tell me about it.”

“I was going to change the world. Save it.”

“A very noble intention.” Eggsy and Alex rushed in guns drawn, lowering them at the sight before them. “Well, I’m sure you two can wrap up here. Don’t forget to rescue the princess.” It was almost comical how Eggsy’s eyes went wide.  
Holly slipped through the groups of confused people, passed the dead woman and a few dead guards. She opened a door and propped a body against it to keep it open, get comms open for the guys. Just as she stepped through the doorway she heard a single gunshot. She kept walking.

“Holly, good job.” Merlin was still a little crackly.

“The other two are dealing with Valentine and the crowd.” It wasn’t like she’d given them a choice.

“And what about you?”

“I need some fresh air. Valentine puked in the control room.”

“He’s still alive? How did you stop him?”

“He was alive when I left. He was using a biometric palm print scanner as his big red button, I shot his hands.”

There was a little pause, Holly wondered if she’d lost connection again. “Would you consider joining my department?”

“I’m wanted for treason in England, I’d be arrested the second I set foot on British soil.”

“I know, I’m sure that could disappear, they are false allegations if your agent is to be believed.” Merlin offered almost slyly. If only it was that simple.

“The charges are false, the grudge is real.”

“Someone important then? Were they in the compound? One of Valentines supporters?” While Holly hadn’t been paying too much attention to the people in there, a Holmes would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

“I’m not that lucky.”

“If there’s anything we can do for you just ask.” For a moment Holly dared to hope. “Could you take a left, I’m seeing something odd?”

“There isn’t a left turn.” Just a rock wall between the metal struts supporting the tunnel.

”Humour me.” Holly reached out to the wall, it felt like rock, cold and jagged. She knocked on it and heard a faint metallic echo.

“What’s down there? Why did he hide it?” Holly pulled out the Switch and accessed the map, there were no dots the other side, in fact the only odd thing about in front of her was a slightly thicker line, no sign of anything beyond. Systematically she ran her fingers over the surface, starting around the same height as a normal door handle.

A little higher a small hatch gave way under her exploring hands, revealing a hidden handle. “The mystery continues.” It was reassuring to have Merlin in her ear as she turned the handle, heart racing a little.  
Another corridor was revealed she slowly pushed the door open, looking like every other corridor except this one didn’t lead anywhere. Holly caught the door before it closed noticing no visible handle on this side. While logic dictated it would be like the other side, hidden, Holly wasn’t taking any chances. With how heavy the door was it was probably steel, which meant she’d also lose her connection with Merlin. She propped it open with a rock nearby, from the scuffs on the floor, it was there for that reason.

Down the short corridor on the right were three alcoves with doors similar to the one with the princess behind. Though there was no hatch on these doors, just a handle and what looked to be a finger print scanner on each one of them. It was a superstition, bad things coming in three.

“Special guests?” She asked Merlin as she inspected the finger print scanner.

“I’ve just got access to Valentines guest lists. Let me see if anything pops.”

“I’ll try to get access to the rooms.” Holly would bet anything that the only fingerprints that would open these cells belonged to Valentine. Biometric locks were apparently an arse to get through. She’d never actually needed to get through one so this would be a novel experience.

It took a bit of bashing with the grip of the pistol to get through the plastic casing. If she was lucky they’d all be linked so she’d only have to get access to one. She used the front facing camera on the Switch to get a look behind the scanner. Out of the Switch’s case she pulled some needle nose tweezers and a USB-C cable that split out to crocodile clips.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join my department, they wouldn’t find you.” Merlin offered as she hooked up the Switch and opened a command terminal split screened with the newest version of her swipe card bypass interface. She set the interface going, watching the responses on the terminal side to the queries she was sending.

“I can’t take the risk.” She scanned the screen waiting for something. “Anything on the list?”

“No one who would warrant this kind of isolation.” An odd response on the command line halted the process allowing her to properly see what had happened. Access part one of eight granted. She’d need an eight pronged access push, not something she had ever considered, she hoped the Switch was up to that. She guessed it checked eight parts of the scan for matches, less processing time than trying the whole finger print and having to account for the variety of pressure, angle and any moisture interference. “That was impressive.” Holly hadn’t realised she’d been thinking out loud as she made adjustments to the bypass program and set it going again.  
It took a few minutes but the light above the scanner turned green and something clicked in the door.

“Holly wait!” Alex sounded out of breath over the line. Holly was just about to ask why when the cell door burst open and someone barrelled out.

Ah, that was why.

Zephyr.

It explained why Alex was involved. He was basically Zephyrs keeper by now.

Holly only just managed to lock and place the Switch down nicely before she was tackled to the floor. She manage to roll them before Zephyr could stabilise on top.

“Can’t stay.” Holly said brightly, scrambling off and disconnecting her Switch and stowing it as she half jogged down the side corridor. She’d make a new cable but she needed to leave now. She was back in the main corridor when Zephyr crashed into her again, pushing her into the wall opposite. Her shoulder hit first, absorbing most of the impact, then the back of her head smacked against the uneven wall as Zephyr used his body weight to push her against the wall and keep her pinned. She waited for the sharp pain in her head to reduce, blinking a few times to bring the world back into focus.

“Are you working for Valentine?” Angry unshaved Zephyr was kind of hot. She waited a little for the temptation to try and stroke his stubble to subside.

“Do you really think that poorly of me? Why would I have to break into the system if I worked for him?” She tried to gesture back down the hall where the wires and cable were still dangling from the scanner but her hands were still pinned between the two of them.

“Maybe he didn’t trust you, a wise choice.” That stung a little, Holly had to push back on that before it dug too deep in her head.

“Holly, you have a four red purple dots about to turn to the corner.” Merlin warned her, a little faint from where the glasses had become a bit dislodged.

Bracing herself Holly pushed against the wall, embracing the fresh stabs of pain as she shoved Zephyr back down the corridor behind him. In her next swift movement, Holly drew the pistol and took cover, wincing as a hail of bullets hit the metal girder she was using for cover. Her pain focused her, her anger narrowing to a point so when she spun out of her cover her shots didn’t miss. She didn’t even see them properly before they dropped.

She turned to the hidden corridor, gun still out, but her finger not on the trigger as she pointed it at Zephyr who looked seconds away from launching at her again. “I wouldn’t.” Something wet was trickling down her neck, she reached to touch it and when she brought her hand back and looked they were slick with blood. She looked back at Zephyr who suddenly looked very pale and sort of terrified. Good, he could do with some fear. It would give her a head start.

“You should get that checked, out, we have a medical kit on the jet.” Merlin ordered. Holly cracked a half smile, knowing he couldn’t see it.

“I’ll see you around.” She said to both of them, then took off at a sprint while her adrenaline was still keeping her upright.

She dumped the glasses in the hanger by the door she and Alex had used before heading over to the group of snowmobiles. It was cold out there. She didn’t know where the nearest hint of civilisation was. She didn’t care, she needed to get out of here.

She hadn’t been going for more than a minute before she stopped and vomited in the snow.


	6. Prost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly's almost getting used to her new routine on the run. And then there's a new spanner in the works

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did try for a two week update schedule, but life gets in the way.  
> I can't promise anything now, not until everything resolves itself. I will do my best. I always do.

Looking back, Holly couldn’t remember any of her journey off the mountain. Most of it was a blur of scenery that reminded her of her time in Bulgaria, with only the noise of the engine to keep her company.

She’d dry heaved at the bottom of the mountain where she’d ran out of snow. That last day repeated through her head like it hadn’t actually happened.

She’d shot people, without a second thought. It had been them or her and she’d picked her. Did that make it ok?

She had plenty of time to over think about it as she rested her head against the window of the train carriage taking her to Nice. France was a risk, but so was everywhere, she at least had learnt a little French. She could try Italy again another time.

It took a few hours to erase her journey to the hotel and make her feel safe enough to try to sleep. It was always going to be patchy at best but by the time the sun rose Holly felt more tired than she had before trying. It looked like there would be a lot of jogging in her future.

She avoided any sort of routine, mixing up jogging times and routes, switching cafes and supermarkets all depending on the roll of a die. It probably would have been easy enough to make a program to figure out a schedule, but Holly like the unpredictableness of the die. Computers would never manage true randomness and any logic could eventually be cracked given the proper motivation.

Two weeks later she moved on. She didn’t know how often she was supposed to, but this time it wasn’t because of someone else.

\---- 

This was repeated across 12 small cities and 6 months. Cities would normally be questionable, with a high population density and a lot of CCTV it didn’t seem like a good idea for her. Harder to spot a tail, but Holly had managed to negate the CCTV aspect as she rolled out her project. It was a beauty, using facial recognition to find her in camera feeds then using a mix of AI and machine learning to erase her out of the video in real time. The processing power would be immense for covering a city, so Holly had it follow a nondescript tracker on a disposable phone covering a quarter mile radius. Still a lot of processing power, but a little less suspicious to use.

With a bit more breathing space Holly started taking on jobs, mostly bespoke security, both home and computer. She took a leaf out of Jamie’s book, pretending there was someone else in charge and she was just an installation technician, making it sound more like a company instead of a one man band. It helped when people thought they were dealing with a guy, as much as it irked her. Jamie had such a good point though, she had been underestimated and overlooked by playing that part.

\----

It was city thirteen that the ruse ended.

She’d been doing an install for a small time drug dealer in Germany. The first few days she’d been plagued by his teenage son following her around. Then Friday came and the son had two school friends over for a ‘Fifa weekend’. Holly had done so well covering the trauma of secondary school boys with worse trauma, now it was being mixed back into her life as the teens tried to boss her around.

“You work for my dad, you have to do as I say.” Horrible flashbacks to secondary school. It was actually worse that all three of them spoke English. Maybe next time she’d refuse any jobs where they had kids.

At least she could leave at the end of the day, find a nice bar or something before going back to the Airbnb. That was wishful thinking. Ever since Roxy at the hotel bar Holly had been suspicious of anyone even looking her at a bar and realised it wasn’t good for her. She got nothing out of it anymore. That had been another horrible realisation to which she had sarcastically toasted to Mycroft for ruining anything fun in her life.

She was three drinks deep in her room when her phone beeped at her. An alert sent from her client's computer showing an unauthorised access attempt. She hadn’t taught her client to clear those yet. Training came after install. The vodka went back in the fridge and Holly pulled her boots back on. She could still pass as sober as long as no one breathalysed her, and she was walking anyway.

It was a ten minute jog and as she got to the front door she heard angry yelling in German, followed by a stomach dropping scream. Wrapping her fist and arm in her jacket Holly smashed one of the small windows in the front door and let herself in. Her suspicious were instantly confirmed as her client held a metal baseball bat above his head, belt in the other and his son curled up on the floor.

Holly saw red, she darted across the room before he’d started his next swing, or even noticed her. She grabbed the bat and wrestled him for it. It didn’t seem a smart move, she felt like half his size, but that’s how it always was with her, why she’d learnt to play on her strengths, which wasn’t actually her physical strength.

Eventually she managed to throw him over her hip, using his movements to fuel the move, releasing the bat as he tumbled, Holly kicked it away when he landed hard. She stumbled back as he kicked at her feet, getting a vague feeling of déjà vu. From that it was easy to get him in a lock to keep him on the floor. From there she was a little stuck, the man was squirming, swearing at her, the kid was still curled up and Holly really thought she should check on him. She couldn’t see the two friends from earlier. Hopefully they had gone for help, she wouldn’t blame them if they’d just run home.

Even better, the door to the kitchen opened a crack, then a bit more to reveal the pair, one was clutching his arm and limping, the other trying to look protective, eyes darting around the room, before landing on Holly and her now former client.

“What happened?” Holly asked. Both boys looked a bit shifty, glancing at the man she was pinning down. “Whatever, get something to restrain him so I can check on your friend.” One of them came back with a roll of duct tape, the other with a first aid kit. Once her client was secure Holly looked over his son, who despite being silent and still, was at least conscious. “Anyone called the police?” Holly asked as she checked over the open wounds, cleaning taping sterile pads over the worst of them.

“No police” Her former client demanded, she assumed because of the drug dealing nature of his work.

“You don’t get a say in this.”

“You work for me.” Ah, that’s where the kid got it from.

“Contract was terminated when you tried to assault me five minutes ago.” Leaving the doors wide open so any sound would travel, she headed up to the study to investigate the original reason for her visit. The spots of blood she found as she went troubled her a little. She wished she could have done more than the patching up and a basic check of pulse and breathing, but that’s really all the first aid training she could remember.

In the study the Locked Down messaged greeted her. Exactly what she’d been expecting. What was new was the USB stick in the front of the tower. That would be a fun little puzzle. She left the main computer locked down, she didn’t have her usual gloves or the time to remove fingerprints, but the USB stick was her prize.

There was urgent knocking at the door, odd considering Holly had left a smashed window in the door. Who knocks when they see that? “Watch him. Do not go near him.” She instructed. As the only reasonable adult in the house she felt responsible for the kids until they were safer.

Her boots crunched on the broken glass as she opened the door cautiously. A very anxious looking woman was waiting for her.

“My boys called, they were staying here for the weekend but they said it was urgent.” The clear British accent twisted her gut into knots. The boys had seemed to have more of a mixed accent, the potential link to her home worried her.

“Name?” Holly didn’t even pretend to only know German, sticking with generic Bulgarian accented English.

“Chloe Shipman.”

“One moment.” She shut the door and went back to the living room. “Does the name Chloe Shipman ring a bell for anyone?”

“She’s our step mum.” That meant someone else could be the responsible adult.

“Good.” Holly walked back to the front door and opened it wider to let the woman in, pointing down the hall. She waited for a positive reaction from the boys before leaving.

With the fresh air hitting her face Holly managed some afterthoughts that made her walk faster. Chloe hadn’t questioned the glass, who she was or made any ‘what the fuck’ noises when she’d gotten to the living room. The boys, even if they had hidden, they hadn’t fled, they hadn’t looked traumatised, just a little out of their depth and a little injured. They could have easily jumped the garden fence while calling the police. Holly had her own reasons for not calling, but what was theirs?

Then she remembered. Kids ran under the radar. They had to be Cherubs. If no one had turned up yet that means the kids hadn’t recognised her. That was good because she hadn’t been careful around them. She didn’t know how up to date the description or photos of her were. Chloe was more of a risk, the adults wouldn’t rely on easily changed details, more like facial shapes and build. Hopefully her accent wouldn’t get mentioned, she should have stuck to her guns, switching would just be suspicious.

She’d messed up, she needed to leave before it caught up with her. She’d pack up when she got home and be in a new city by sunrise.

\----

It was on the train a new thought started bugging her. If they had been investigation her former client then the information on the computer would be useful. Holly had never looked and always offered an NDA at extra cost. This client had declined. She probably wouldn’t feel bad about trading access for something she wanted.

She pulled out her phone and texted her former client. “Call me – Supernova.” The phone would have been confiscated and the name would find its way to where it would make sense. She’d have time to set up a false location for her phone they would no doubt try to trace. Maybe even time to add a little fun. They maybe already had started linking it to her, maybe she shouldn’t confirm it for them, but maybe she could benefit from it too.

In the back of her head she could hear Alec telling her she was an idiot.

\----

It only took half a day for her phone to ring. Private number, well, obviously. She let it ring a few times before picking up.

“’Sup?”

“Supernova?”

“M. How’s it going?” Of all the potential options she could think of M was probably the best. She didn’t know the head of Cherub and if Mycroft had called she would have just hung up. She actually felt a little special that she had the attention of the head of MI6, on the other hand that probably meant they were tracing the call. She hoped they enjoyed the park she'd left the phone acting as a forwarder in.

“You left a calling card.”

“I lost your number when I switched phones. Does the name Eric Machel sound familiar?” There was a sigh on the other end of the call.

“You were the woman at the house.” That confirmed that she was going to have to drastically change her appearance again. There was no point until after this was done though. “What do you want?”

“A trade.”

“I can’t authorise a pardon.” Holly rolled her eyes, even knowing they couldn't see.

“I don’t want one. I’m not guilty. I want information. A report on wellbeing of Martha Hudson and John Watson.” The only two she dared ask about, they were protected by Sherlock, Mycroft wouldn’t touch them.

“And what are you offering on Eric Machel.”

“Full access to his computer and associated accounts.”

“Once we get the hardware I expect we’ll be able to do that ourselves.”

“Why do you think I was at the house? By the time you break in the information will be outdated or wiped.” There was a long pause, Holly had to check the call hadn’t dropped.

“I think arrangements can be made.” Right, now to prepare to avoid the inevitable ambush at the exchange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's not as good as the last chapter, it's hard to follow something like that.


	7. Proost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly needs to learn to leave things that are bad for her alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Currently cramming for exams in a career switch move. Sometimes you don't realise how toxic a place is until you leave it.

Of all the people Holly hadn’t really thought she’d see again, Irene Adler was high on that list considering that last she’d heard, Adler had been killed not long after fleeing the country. Yet there she was, sat in the coffee shop in Rotterdam sipping on a latte. From the slight widening of the woman’s eyes, Holly guessed the surprise was mutual. Having spent as much time in each other company while Holly had worked it would take more than a light disguise to fool Adler.

The purple fascinator was a little give away that Adler was also potentially her latest client. She should walk away. Adler had sold her out before. This could be a sting operation, or a honey pot or just a good old fashion backstab.

She sat down anyway.

“You look good for a twice dead woman.” There was no pretence, no accent, no feigning innocence. Holly didn’t see the point.

“You should try it, does wonders for the lifestyle.”

“Does it?” Holly gave her a critical look, Irene’s polished look only hid the surface. Holly could see the tiredness in her eyes, the tension in her shoulders. “Phone on the table.” A sleek phone was carefully placed between them. Holly had no presumptions that that was her only one, but if she didn’t go through the motions then Adler would be suspicious of what she was actually doing.

“I liked what you did to my old one. His face was priceless when he thought he’d guessed the password.” So apparently they weren’t going to ignore that. It was probably better to get that out in open now anyway. Adler had never been one to mince words when needed.

“You didn’t have to give me credit.”

“Get off your high horse. Until you’ve been in that situation you don’t know how you would react. Don’t presume otherwise.” Even the sharp tone of her voice was accompanied by the starts of a seductive look. This was going to be a headache, Holly could tell.

\----

Twelve hours later and Holly was wearing an expensive cocktail dress and heels she could only just run in as she snuck around the backstage of a fashion show with Irene. They'd already made out a total of three times to deflect suspicion from wandering people. Holly could not fault the lipstick brand Irene had suggested, it held up remarkably well under the circumstances.

“I have always regretted not taking you under my wing.” Irene commented as Holly worked on the door lock. “We could have taken on the world.”

“And done what with it?”

“Whatever we wanted to.”

“Hard pass.”

“You have no ambition.”

“That you know of.”

“Oh?”

“No. Get in.” The lock finally gave, Holly turned the handle and opened the door, dragging Irene in, shutting the door behind them. Holly made her way to the computer sitting on the desk, pulling a cable out of the clutch that was currently housing her switch, she connected it and powered on the computer. She watched Irene as it booted, the other woman casually snooping through the rest of the office.

“So, what did you do?”

“When?”

“To get the Holmes’s on your tail?”

“Nothing.”

“Come now, I’ve heard rumours.” Irene had given up snooping after palming something from a shelf. Now Holly had the woman encroaching on her space as they both watched the computer take its sweet time. It was booting from an OS on her switch, trying to configure the settings to make it run with the hardware while being able to access the computers files.

“They’re all wrong.” If any were correct, she wouldn’t be on the run.

“I heard you seduced Mycroft's youngest brother to steal government secrets. I didn’t even realise he had another brother.” Holly snorted, they had more than just an extra brother. She wondered if there were actually more than the hidden sister.

“If I wanted government secrets I would have just taken them years ago from under their noses. Why take the long route, and why do it in a way I would get caught?” It was actually insulting. That was the best people could come up with? She was SuperNova, not some half-rate hack.

The computer finally reached a log in screen Holly recognised as from her OS, all it took was clicking ok and the username and password auto populated and logged in for her. Beside her Irene was practically purring.

Having done what she was there for, Holly got up and gestured for Irene to find what she wanted. Short of getting out cleanly, Holly had done what Irene had needed of her. Of at least what she said she needed of Holly. Holly had been working on contingency plans for all situations she could think of right up until they had met out front an hour and a half earlier.

“Done. Shall we?” Slipping her own USB stick into its hiding place in a particularly chunky broach Irene gestured to the door. Holly carefully shut down the computer and packed away the cable, joining Irene by the door, listening for anyone outside. It sounded empty, so after a quick check they left the room and headed to the nearest stairwell. Opening the door they were greeted with heavy rhythmic footsteps from above and below. Holly could feel a cold chill go down her spine.

“Maybe not this way?” She suggested dryly, already going to her third plan. She’d memorised the layout and exits of the building. If they’d already closed off the best route there was no point with the second. Irene was almost too eager to follow her. Interesting, not leading the way or making her own escape as Holly would have expected at the first sign of trouble. She already had what she needed. Unless she needed a human shield later. Or a bargaining chip. By now Holly was fairly certain Irene had screwed her, she just wasn’t sure how much.

Holly’s third plan was a bold one. Walk out of the building like she belonged. Cameras had been looping since before they’d turned up, so that didn’t worry her. She did get her Switch out, glaring fiercely at Irene when she tried to peek. Hijacking the network infrastructure to boost her signal she found what she wanted, a bit of breaking in here, a little drawing on a map there and then a second line as an afterthought.

“How much?” Irene asked casually, nodding at the device. They were just reaching the large atrium, there were some people loitering, a disincentive to make a scene. Probably why Irene had waited to ask.

“They’re like three hundred quid on amazon.”

“And with modifications?”

“You’re funny.” Like Holly was going to do that again. As they descended the steps a car pulled up by the valet who looked a little confused, especially when no one got out. Holly carefully passed him a ten euro note, making sure there wouldn’t be enough of a full fingerprint on it. “I’m guessing you’re coming with me?” She asked Irene who was still trailing her.

“I was thinking we could have a little celebration.” Irene had this look on her face, one that promised an interesting time. Holly knew that meant neither of their plans would go smoothly.

“Get in then.” Holly gestured to the passenger side, going around to get in the driver side. The second the door shut three black cars rounded the corner ahead, and checking the rear-view mirror showed four more. Hooking the Switch's strap over her wrist Holly threw the car into first, teased the clutch, and with a little tire squeal sped off, rapidly shifting to a comfortable gear. The three cars ahead positioned to block off the road but Holly managed to nip through, mounting the curb and kicking out the back end as she did. A quick glance showed at least one had managed to move to follow her through the light traffic. It was no accident they had all green lights, her Switch changing them for her, then changing them back to use other traffic to block the pursuing car.

“Who are they?” Holly asked, keeping her tone even, getting angry would not help right now.

“Why do you think I would know?”

“Really? After last time? You know people are after me and I know you like leverage.”

“Why did you do the job with me if you don’t trust me?”

“Being on the run isn’t cheap.” Also, she was a sucker for shit like this.

A motorbike pulled up alongside the car and Holly gave up on questioning in favour of some creative driving to lose her new friend. And the one after that. Strangely enough, after Holly turned on her blackout protocol on the Switch they didn’t gain another. Holly had to act quickly, cycling through her still viable plans. Bother of them jerked forward as she sharply braked. While Irene recovered Holly was already out of the car and remotely locking it and locking out the interior controls. It was hard to run and use the Switch but she had to get distance to allow a signal again so that the second car she had remotely hijacked could zero in on her position.

Another car turned up first, no one good turned up in a black SUV. Holly hurried down the pavement trying to find a side alley to disappear down, the car crawling along with her almost mockingly. The driver’s window rolled down to reveal a familiar blonde. Holly could feel her pulse racing, Jamie hadn’t been a consideration, surely Irene hadn’t gone to Jamie. The back door slide open as an invitation.

“Not in a million years.” The car needed to turn up now.

“That hurts. Hand over the device.” From the shadows two men seemed to appear, crowding her towards the car.

"You think you can take me before I brick this thing?” Brave words for someone who felt she was rapidly losing control of the night.

“Shall we find out?” Jamie asked with a coy smile.

Holly tensed trying to figure out her best option, fight or flight. She wasn’t armed, formal attire didn’t leave much space, and she hadn’t trusted Irene to keep her ands to herself and not turn them against her.

A loud shot had her diving for cover, a second quickly following. Holly’s car finally turned up blocking her from Jamie’s sight. A third shot rang out as Holly got in, another hasty exit.

\-----

It didn’t seem wise to go back to her place, the men from the building were not Jamie’s, so Irene hadn’t just sold her out to one person, who knew who else she’d told.

She slipped into a bar a few side alleys away from her place, at the very least she needed to calm her nerves and her brain. It was going a mile a minute and she needed it to stop before she puked. She slumped against the bar, casting a critical eye over the other occupants, trying to bring her awareness back, focus on the now. Analysis could happen later when she was on her way out of this city.

Only two people she knew could have made those shots, John Watson and Victoria Winslow, and one of them just walked in.

Two shot glasses and a bottle of vodka appeared on the bar between them. Holly didn’t even realise her grandmother had asked as she still struggled to ground herself.

Not a single word was said as Victoria poured, placing the shot glass directly in her hand. Holly obediently drank, the glass being refilled before it even touched the bar.

“You got sloppy.” Victoria reprimanded as she drained her own glass, topping it up, making sure neither glass got dry.

“I underestimated Irene.” That was probably her biggest mistake.

“She sold you out to anyone willing to pay for information on where you would be.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time she sold me out.”

“Then you should have known better.” True. “Your Gameboy is getting almost as notorious as you.” Holly couldn’t help but groan when Victoria called her Switch a Gameboy, at least it was the right company. “She used tonight as a showcase of its abilities. I can only assume she was planning on stealing it and selling it to the highest bidder.” Between selling her out and selling the switch Holly wondered how rich Irene could have been by the end of the night. A little bit of her wondered which was more valuable.

“I guess it’s time to go dark again.”

“I was beginning to wonder if you still had any sense.”

“It gets boring on the run.”

“You sound like your grandfather.” Victoria look fondly at her as she emptied the last of the bottle into Holly’s glass. “Take care.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holly would join adrenaline addicts anonymous but its full of double 0 agents.


	8. Şerefe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly makes a stupid choice (again)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Passed my exams, now job hunting. In the mean time I'm learning javascript, because why not.

It had been about three months since Holly had had her fun game of cat and mouse out of Rotterdam. Victoria had offered some cover but looked proud when Holly pulled out her Switch to make the city dance to cover her escape.

True to her word Holly had gone to ground. It had been a bit too much heat with everyone Irene had pulled towards her. She’d wandered as much as she felt comfortable with, switching up her identity as often as she felt necessary. With Irene compromising her last working identity, she had to build up another one. Well she didn’t have to but it seemed wise, she would be bored if she had nothing to do. Eventually she needed an end plan, somewhere to settle down, she couldn’t keep doing this for the rest of her life.

Maybe she’d risk the journey to America, there would be plenty of work there and she was sure she could fly under the radar there. Canada and Australia were also options she considered.

She’d get a few more jobs done then see what caught her fancy.

Right now she was in Turkey, disguised as a young man, it just made life easier sometimes, installing an extensive surveillance system. As usual with her clientele he probably wasn’t fully legitimate himself but Holly wasn’t digging until she got her pay day.

The complex was surprisingly extensive, even with the floor plans it had taken Holly a bit of getting used to. Her client had gone with no expense spared, her favourite kind. The only thing she couldn’t offer was someone to monitor the systems, but he apparently had that covered. So like a kid in a candy shop Holly gave the place the best, cameras, sensors, the works, hardening it to any sort of physical interference she could think of.

She was having fun.

And then it changed.

She was in the testing phase, sort of unofficially as she was doing it from her place a few streets away. She’d said that it couldn’t be accessed off site, but she always told that lie.

So the client probably didn’t know she’d overheard him planning to have her killed once she was finished. No vulnerabilities left behind, understandable, but not her preferred ending. This is why she took half payment first.

Her backdoor made its way into the system, it only seemed fair. She wanted to be able to remotely shut it down if she needed to flee.

Then it got better.

Watching her clients office where he was currently working on his laptop, hoping for some more titbits of information she instead got a little shock when Mycroft Holmes got dragged in, sporting a few visible bruises. Holly hadn’t seen him since that Christmas Eve what seemed like a lifetime ago.

Her biggest dilemma was what to do with this, Mycroft would have backup or a team somewhere close so she would have to savour the beat down she hoped was coming. She did a quick reconnaissance on his back up to see how much time they had.

A little nugget appeared in her stomach when she couldn’t find any sign of them. Maybe they had just learnt to hide better? She dug her cyber claws in a little deeper with still no sign.

So she made a call. One that didn’t get picked up, not that that surprised her.

She took a screen shot of the video and sent it off.

Her phone rang before she even reached for it again.

“I’m a little jealous I’m not the one punching him.” Holly didn’t bother with greetings.

“He’s supposed to be in Brussels.” It was nice to hear Zephyrs voice when it wasn’t angry at her

“Well his sense of direction sucks.”

“Where is he?

“Turkey, 20 minutes outside central Istanbul. I’ll send you coordinates.” She was already sending the message as she spoke. The second she sent it the line went dead. No gratitude then.

Holly got up and poured herself a drink, thankfully Turkey was not a dry country. She watched the men rough Mycroft up a bit, a little amused that her client thought he was sneaking around with his mistress.

It was interrupted by her phone ringing, same number as before.

“Miss Summers.” Holly was a little surprised to hear M over the line. “It appears there is a little issue with accessing the surveillance in the area, I’m sure we could come to some arrangement if you would care to help.” The words were careful and diplomatic. Holly could almost imagine Zephyr sulking in the background of the call.

“I don’t think you have anything to offer me.”

“Miss Summers-” Holly stopped listening as her client just stabbed Mycroft in the gut. The nugget of moral obligation in her gut twinged. She quickly put together an authentication package and sent it to Zephyr. Collecting her boots Holly started planning, piping the feed through to her switch and the call to a bluetooth headset she hid with a hoodie and floaty scarf .

“Password is Hollyisawesome, capital H, rest is lowercase.” Holly interrupted the veiled threats M had been starting on.

“Shit.” The line went unnaturally silent but still live, they had muted their side. That was their problem. Holly picked up the last few bits she might need before locking down the computer and leaving with haste.

Halfway down to the complex the call burst back into life.

“I know I am asking for a lot but I have no other option. I need you to extract Mycroft.”

“Don’t you have people for this?” Holly was really hoping she could just abort her attempt and disappear instead.

“They are too far out and the subject needs intervention now.”

“Let me get my shoes, do you think boots would be better?”

“We have you on camera heading to the location.”

“Good, I’ll need a little help, when I get there, I’ll need my hands free.”

“Q will assist. An extraction point will be provided once you have the subject.” Holly gut was all sorts of twisted by now. It was a scary thought, trusting Zephyr to guide her. The line went silent as Holly continued to the complex, once she was close enough she muted all of the alarms. The cameras were harder to deal with. She didn’t want to alert the guards, but Zephyr would need to know where she was.

“I need a minute.”

“We do not have time to waste.” Holly bit down her snarky response as she fiddled around with the network, configuring a clean version of the feed to continue for zephyr while the onsite feed would loop the camaras closest to her physical location, using her switch as the beacon.

Satisfied she snuck in the eastern gate, diverting through the kitchen and pilfering a nice cast iron frying pan, listening out for Zephyr to instruct her to deviate. Her presence over the last few weeks meant no one questioned her, she’d occasionally done odd things in the name of testing the system.

“What exactly is your plan when you get to the location?” From the last she had seen there were three other people in the room with Mycroft. One of them Holly could have probably surprised. Three would be stupid.

“What I do best.” Distract and mislead, the frying pan was just a reassurance.

Before she turned down the final corridor she pulled out her switch and killed the inside feed, setting off a few of the proximity sensors in clusters.

“Theres a lot of movement to the south and west gates.” Zephyr advised. Just as she’d hoped. “The two men are leaving the room.” One of them stopped just outside, taking up guard while the other headed to the security room. Holly pulled a thin puck from her bag and slid it down the corridor. The second it was close to the door a cloud of smoke erupted while an internal transmitter gave the card reader a reason to stay unlocked.

“Target is pressing a panic button.” Zepher informed her as she darted down the corridor and jabbed a taser in the man's neck. If the smoke creeping through the gaps in the door hadn’t been a tip off then

“The door won’t lock, so access isn't an issue, I need you to keep security distracted.”

“I’m bringing local law enforcement to the south and west. Hopefully there will be enough confusion between them and the security.” There was already some shouting in the distance.

“I better make the most of it.” Holly darted down the corridor, swinging the frying pan, edge first for the knees and then the flat of it for the guys head. The guy crumpled as Holly had hoped, her hand felt a little tingly from the force. She relieved the man of his gun, replacing the frying pan for the moment. She wasn’t likely to get close enough to use it

"Hold position. Target has a blade to the subjects' throat.” Holly pulled out her switch to check the feed. Sure enough Mycroft’s chair had been swung around and her former client had a knife to his throat, using him as a shield.

“Theres a proximity sensor outside his window, you can remotely trigger it and it’ll make a loud noise.” Holly could hear some background tapping over the call and assumed he was priming it.

“Ready?” Switch stowed, Holly could feel her heart pounding as she pressed herself against the wall by the door.

“Ready.”

“Go.” Holly wrenched open the door to see her former client’s head twisting to look behind him, to the window. She didn’t let him turn back, two shots and he collapsed, the knife falling harmlessly to the floor. Holly briefly looked over the injured man, mostly focusing on the knife handle sticking out of his abdomen. Nothing seemed immediately life threatening, the knife currently keeping the wound from bleeding too much. Mycroft managed to crack open an eye, the tiniest of muscle movements showed confusion before the eye shut again. “You need to move.”

“Good thing they tied him to a wheelie chair.” Holly grabbed the backrest and towed the chair and its occupant out of the office. She picked up the frying pan and wedged it between Mycroft's arm and side. If the gun ran out of bullets she wanted something. “I’m heading for the garage, I’ll take one of his cars and then you can direct me to where I can dump him.” Holly could hear mumbling from the chair but didn’t stop, mumbling meant he was still alive and that was good enough for the moment.

“I’m clearing your path now.” It was quite nice to have an extra person helping rather than juggling the roles herself. Especially when she reached the garage and found it deserted, the door starting to open as she loaded Mycroft into the nearest sensible car. She never understood why Range Rovers were considered luxury by some people, but she wasn’t about to complain. “All gates are open, avoid the south and west gates, there is still congestion in the area.”

It was when she reached the open road she realised how much she’d had to trust Zephyr, and how he hadn’t let her down. It gave her a strange uneasy feeling in her stomach.

It had been close to dusk when Holly had snuck into the compound, but it was solidly dark by the time she reached an airfield west of Istanbul. The cars headlight flashed over a chinook in the distance as she pulled up as directed, the call cutting off rather abruptly. Holly swallowed thickly as she saw people approach the vehicle. She hadn’t made a deal for herself; she hadn’t considered her exit plan.

The tip of a gun tapped at her window. Swallowing again, Holly pushed the switch to wind it down.

“Slowly unlock the doors and put your hands on the wheel.” To a degree it was reassuring to hear a British accent, though it sounded northern. It was better than being intercepted by a different country with Mycroft is such a vulnerable state.

To her credit, her hands didn’t shake as she obeyed, focusing on how her knuckles were white, curled around the wheel as they unloaded Mycroft next to her.

The chinook’s rotors started up as they transported him to the ramp at the back. For a moment Holly hoped they would just let her leave, but she heard the door next to her open and pulled her focus back. Torchlight bounced over her and the cars interior, blinding her to who was there.

“Slowly get out of the car and put your hands on the back of your head.” Her legs felt a little numb as she climbed down, feet sinking into the mud slightly. Her shoulder ached as she placed her hands behind her head. She probably should have switched sides once or twice when pulling Mycroft's chair halfway across the compound. She didn’t let the pain show, even when she was pushed face first against the car, arms pulled down into cuffs.

The loss of weight when they took her switch hurt more.

Again she was turned, torches shining in her face, a gloved hand reached to her face, pushing down the hood and scarf, the bluetooth headset removed followed by a quick pat down for anything else of interest.

“Confirm positive ID?”

“Subject positively identified as Holly Summers.” Even over a shaky connection Holly recognised M’s voice. “Bring her in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holly is only human.


	9. Slàinte Mhath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly has some time to reflect on her mistakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to blame the pandemic and job hunting for the long delay.  
> Still jobless, hopefully that will have changed by the end of the month

Staring at the white walls Holly couldn’t stop herself from repeating that night in her head, pointing out every mistake she had made, everything she could have done differently. The thoughts swirled around her head, full of ‘what if?’. She’d been down this hole before, she knew it’s ending, but despite that she couldn’t stop it. 

She had fucked up and her cell echoed that back at her quite nicely. 

At least this time she was allowed tea, even if it was a bit too milky and lukewarm. It settled heavily on her, she was there for the long haul. Previously they had just wanted her on edge to give them the advantage. They didn’t need that now. 

The fifth cup wasn’t delivered by a guard, rather a woman in a white nightgown standing on the other side of the glass wall. She had that look, like Holly had seen her in passing of something. Holly could see steam rising from the cup, it was hotter than usual, a reward? The woman placed it in the little airlock, closing it on her side so Holly could open it on her side. The warmth seeped into her hands as she cradled it, the colour was darker too, close to perfect. Holly was on her guard, as she stared into the liquid. 

“I didn’t poison it.” The woman commented after a few moments of Holly staring at the cup. 

“That doesn’t mean it’s not been tampered with.” The woman tilted her head in thought. 

“You could trust me? I didn’t lie to you before.” Holly narrowed her eyes, trying to recognise the woman couldn’t get passed a vague sense of familiarity. “John Watson was released unharmed with my brothers.” 

“Holmes.” That explained enough, she was right to be on her guard. 

“Eurus. Pleasure to finally meet you.” Holly couldn’t bring herself to return the sentiment as she eyed up the tea again. If Eurus had thought introducing herself would make Holly trust her she was mistaken. “If I had wanted to interfere with your food or drink, I would have done it earlier.” That was a horrifying thought. “I was hoping we might be friends. It’s awfully lonely here.” The coy tone just made Holly feel like she was being played with. She placed the mug on the floor and went to lie on her bed, a knee propped up, a clear dismissal as she threw her imaginary ball into the air before catching it. 

\----

The next morning Eurus was sat waiting on the other side of the glass, drinking from a mug, a second one next to her. 

“Why did you save my brother's life?” It was too early to have that rubbed in her face. When it was clear Holly didn’t plan on responding Eurus continued to talk. “I asked Sherlock about you.” The only way to win against a Holmes was not to play. “Apparently my son was quite fond of you.” Holly’s jaw clenched without her permission. From the slight smirk Eurus had seen, what had she done to deserve this. Even in her own head that stubbornly remained a rhetorical question. “I expected more from you.” 

The second mug of tea was left behind, still steaming, on the other side of the glass, out of reach. 

\----

Her next visitor wasn’t quite as calm. Wanda Holmes had slightly scared Holly when they had first become acquainted. Anyone who managed to raise the Holmes siblings without losing their mind should be feared. 

But that was nothing compared to the cold fury of the woman dishing out words of disappointment and betrayal. If she closed her eyes Holly could imagine those words coming from her own mother, from her grandmother. Being a disappointment was nothing new, though the scars from it were old. 

When Eurus turned up a while after Wanda had left Holly couldn’t help but feel like the gentle presence was supposed to be like a balm. It reminded her of that scene from the Avengers were Black Widow was talking to Loki in the glass prison cell and Loki accused her of being sent in to soothe. 

Holly toyed with the idea of letting herself be sucked into whatever game they were playing, see where it went. It would kill the boredom a little. Maybe she could dip her toes, just a little to negotiate a book or something then back out. 

Or she could take a little step back and see what they tried with her. She had all the time in the world to decide. 

“It appears my mother had ulterior motives for visiting me.” 

“You can’t be surprised, ‘ulterior motive’ is practically the family motto.” Eurus narrowed her eyes, slightly surprised at Holly bothering to respond. 

“I feel you shouldn’t be one to talk, considering your presence here.” Holly shrugged and went back to ignoring the woman. She’d given the taste of interaction, see what they made of it. 

\----

The next few visits were entirely silent, Eurus would just sit, sipping from her mug, the second waiting on the floor next to her. Since that first visit Holly hadn’t even had the milky lukewarm version, but if they thought she was going to give in over tea, they were mistaken. Holly had built up a façade of vices over the years, technology, caffeine, alcohol, waiting for someone to dare use it against her. The caffeine headache was a little inconvenient, but she endured. 

One morning the second cup of tea was replaced by a Nintendo switch. It wasn’t hers, the noise it made when placed on the concrete gave away it wasn’t heavy enough to be hers. 

Holly spared it a glance before giving Eurus an unimpressed look. The woman gave her a look with a challenge, daring her to comment. Holly refused to be bated. Their dance continued. 

\----

Considering Holly hadn’t even tried to keep track of the days, she wasn’t sure how long it had been when Mycroft turned up. He looked a lot healthier than the last time she’d seen him, but that wasn’t difficult. His face still looked a little bruised and the line of his suit betrayed the added layer covering the stab wound. 

“There has been a development.” Holly resisted a smirk. The tone had no mockery, no gloating, just business. This could actually be interesting. 

In the corner of her eye she saw the little red LED on the CCTV disappear. Definitely interesting. She placed the imaginary ball on her bed and swung her legs down giving her full attention. “Apparently there was more to the theft of the laptop than initial investigations revealed.” 

“And what has been uncovered?” Holly really had to try not to be mocking in her tone. 

"It appears the laptop was stolen by some unknown thief and that you made chase that night. They discarded the laptop, you recovered it and passed it on to my brother before trying to track down the thief hoping that they would lead to their employer." Holly had to school her expression while her insides twisted. This was unexpected, the implication, something else had to be going on, Mycroft wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of his own heart. She wondered how long it had taken to come up with a story that was actually plausible without either of them looking bad. 

"That is interesting." 

"With this new information the allegations of treason can be dropped. Assuming this is what indeed happened that night." He didn't want to release her only for her to tell the truth and cast doubt on both of them. 

"My memory of that night is a little hazy, but that does sound familiar." A concession without outright agreeing. 

"I will arrange for your release." Mycroft left Holly alone with her thoughts, dissecting the conversation. He had to have an ulterior motive. There was no condition attached other than her agreement of the version of events. If he thought she was going to feel like she owed him for this he was in for a surprise. 

\----

The first place Holly went was to visit Mary’s grave. She’d heard what had happened when she’d last asked about John and had toasted to the woman’s memory later that night. Now she could pay her respect in person, before seeing what state her life in England was like. 

“Mary liked you.” Holly was so used to blending in she hadn’t been paying attention to anyone else’s movement. John stopped next to her, looking down on the plot. “I was told you were going deep and that the treason was part of your cover. I didn’t believe it for a second.” Holly had wondered, since John would have been with the laptop she had allegedly stolen he would have needed to be told a different story. 

“I’m sorry for your loss. You are a good man John. I owe you more than my life. I wish I could have been here, maybe I could have done something.” 

“Mary knew what she was doing. Maybe things could have been different but she made her choice with the circumstance at hand.” John looked like he was telling the grave, not her. “I can wish things were different but I can’t change it.” She saw him steel himself and face her. “I need to go pick up Rosie, would you like to meet her?” Holly nodded and followed as he led them out of the cemetery. 

“Rosie is your daughter?” 

“Rosamund. Mary picked the name. Molly’s looking after her.” 

It was hard to tell what Molly felt about Holly being back as she awkwardly updated John on his daughter. Holly could feel glances in her direction as she perused the nearest bookshelf. Childish babbling joined the conversation catching Holly curiosity enough to look round just in time to see the toddler reaching for her leg. She looked at John as a small hand tried to grab at her jeans, at least they were fitting enough Rosie couldn’t get even a grip. 

“She wants to be picked up.” Holly couldn’t be sure if John was looking more amused at Rosie’s actions or Holly’s complete bewilderment. 

“Have you not taught her stranger danger yet?” Rosie had scrunched up her face and started hitting her leg when the jeans hadn’t yielded. 

“She’s a bit too young to understand the concept.” Holly cast her mind back to the numerous lectures on child development, trying to align the stages with Rosie’s age. “You can pick her up if you want, or I can.” Holly looked down at the child who had moved on to pulling at the laces on her boots. Carefully she picked Rosie up and settled her on her hip. She’d seen it done enough times it wasn't difficult. 

“If she starts crying I’m giving her straight back.” Rosie had immediately grabbed a handful of Holly’s hair and was pressing her other hand against the strands. 

“You might want to get used to that.” John was smirking. A very Holmes like smirk, she had left him behind with them so maybe she shouldn’t be surprised. “Your brother has a baby girl. They visit Mrs Hudson every so often.” Holly’s brain short circuited a little. She’d known everyone's lives would continue in her absence, but the reality of it still packed a punch. “Let’s get lunch and we can catch up.” With a farewell to Molly the trio wandered off to find a café. 

\----

It honestly felt odd to sit down and have a drink. In the last few months Holly had never stayed in a public place to eat or drink, relying on eating on the go a lot of the times. She used John as an anchor, trusting him to watch her back as she let his daughter fiddle with her hair. It calmed her anxiety a little, though she still chose a seat where she could keep an eye on the door. 

They traded stories over tea and cake. Holly eventually pulled her hair into a pony tail to avoid her cake being smushed in. John offering apologies and offered to take Rosie back, Holly declined having only just gotten used to eating around the child, there was no point switching up yet. 

“Ready to face everyone?” John asked as they walked back to Baker Street, he seemed to notice her hesitation and Holly couldn’t be more grateful that he was the first person she’d bumped into. 

“When you put it like that, nope.” 

“If you can trust anyone to act like nothing happened it’ll be Sherlock.” That was somehow both reassuring and not at the same time, but of all the Holmes’s, Sherlock was probably the only one she could handle right now. “Deep breath, it’ll be fine.” that was the advice he had before pushing her through the door right into the piercing gaze of Sherlock. 

“Good, I don’t need to tell you what I’ve been up to.” Holly commented as she watched his eyes dart over her, picking up clues to piece together. She put Rosie on the floor and flopped onto the sofa, basking in its familiarity. 

“I’ll put the kettle on then.” 

“Don’t bother, Mrs Hudson’s coming up with tea.” Holly tensed, plans to escape or hide quickly flashing through her brain almost involuntarily. 

“How was Rosie today?” The sound of her great aunt’s voice filled Holly’s chest with a bunch of emotions she didn’t want to untangle. 

“She met Auntie Holly today.” Martha immediately seemed to notice Holly on the sofa. Holly could see her eyes watering and rolled off the sofa to give her great aunt a hug. It felt good even as she could feel herself tearing up, Martha just held on as if she would disappear if she didn’t hold on tight enough. 

“Did you get taller?” Martha asked eventually as she let go, reaching for a handkerchief to dab at her face. 

“I have lifts in my boots, more discreet than heels.” Martha just smiled fondly. 

“Oh, I only brought up two cups, sit and I’ll bring up another.” 

“I’ll come down and we can have tea together.” That way she could share some sanitised stories without Sherlock calling out her lies. 

“So, who else knows you’re back?” Martha asked once they both had a cup of tea, she’d even broken out the nice biscuits. 

“I have no idea, I wasn’t given my phone back.” Holly had only been given her cleaned and emptied clothes back. No lockpicks, no disassembled cutters, just disappointment. 

“They emptied out your room.” 

“Did they find the crossbow this time?” 

“Only after they’d dismantled all of the furniture and the bathroom first. I made them put it all back together. I have clean bedding for down there if you’d like to stay.” She’d have to check for bugs but she knew that room better than they did. 

“Only if you don’t mind.” 

“Of course I don’t mind Holly. You are always welcome here.” Holly could feel herself tearing up again. “Tell me about some of the places you went. I heard you led them on a merry chase.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next one is mostly done, I was trying to more done so I could go back to semi regular posting but it's a struggle


End file.
